There has been known a tape feeder as a component supplying apparatus that is to be attached to a mounting apparatus for mounting electronic components on a board and supplies electronic components to the mounting apparatus.
Such a tape feeder is configured, as described in the patent document 1 indicated below, in such a way that a tape that holds components disposed at fixed intervals is wound on a reel and the tape unwound from the attached reel is fed to a pickup position where a transfer head in the mounting apparatus sucks an electronic component. The tape that holds electronic components engages a sprocket provided in the tape feeder, and the sprocket intermittently rotates by a predetermined feeding amount. In this way, the electronic components held on the tape successively reach the pickup position.
In such a mounting apparatus, however, even when a component is fed to the pickup position, no suction action is carried out in some cases due to a variety of reasons, for example, when the transfer head fails to suck a component in the pickup position, when only a feeding action is carried out without sucking any component in order to check, for example, whether components are fed in a stable manner, or when the tape feeder is removed from the mounting apparatus and exchanged after a component has been fed to the pickup position. In such cases, the component once fed to the pickup position is typically discarded, resulting in waste of components.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-242284